


Twas the Night before Applications

by CalinFour



Category: Doctor Who, Literary RPF, Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Fanfiction, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-13
Updated: 2014-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-04 11:42:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1777756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalinFour/pseuds/CalinFour
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate companions Chloe and Casey are old friends of the Doctor and get whisked away to a world where the reality holding it together are tearing by their own doing. The populace are not plain people though. Chloe and Casey battle general confusion, a temperamental rip, and complete displacement. But what isn't the Doctor sharing this Christmas Eve?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Twas the Night before Applications

It was midnight. All the lights in the spit-water town of Alfred, New York were out and the children who knew to mind their parents on the night before Christmas Eve were in bed. The Christmas lights and decorations up and down the street that lit up the houses were twinkling as if as a beacon for magic to come and grant childhood wishes. Much like that of the teenager who could never seem to grow up; Chloe was under her covers with a flashlight, still working on her college essay.  
"'Sherlock Holmes was one of the greatest'…no, that is too cheesy…um 'One of the cleverest fictional detectives in history was none other than'…no too wordy! Jesus Christ, I am never going to get this done!" She mumbled to herself as she scribbled away at a rattled up piece of paper, already abused by her editing. She just knew if Casey saw this, she would just tell her to take a deep breath and turn off her editor for god's sake. But she could not, and it seemed like she was not going to sleep well that night.

Suddenly, as all things seem to happen, just outside her window, was one of the loudest thuds she had ever heard. One so loud it could disrupt even the most in-depth critical writers absorbed in thought. Chloe jumped clear out of her covers and grabbed her novelty Lucius Malfoy cane (complete with snakehead and wand). And armed with her cane, flashlight, and blanket, Chloe opened her window and crawled outside, convinced her parents would do nothing. She climbed down onto the cold gravel with only her Adventure Time socks to protect her feet, and searched for what she assumed was an early Santa Claus.  
"Hello?" She stage whispered. "Santa? It is a little early to be shimming down chimneys don't you think?"  
No one answered. She looked around the backyard but saw nothing out of the ordinary. She knew the sound came from the roof.  
"Hello?" She stage whispered again and she waited. All was still.  
"Hello!" An overly friendly and surprisingly chipper voice beckoned, knocking Chloe off her feet. "I'm not that fond of shimmying, but I could give it a go!"  
"Wha--who…? Doctor?!" Chloe shouted as she tried to collect herself.  
Sure enough, a slyly smiling face popped up from the roof to see the startled girl. But he looked different somehow. He still was debonair of course, but now he had on a rather odd bowtie and his screwdriver was different too. Chloe could not quite place it and the tie was throwing her off.  
The Doctor jumped down off the roof and helped her collect her things and stand back up.  
"Before you ask," he said, "don't diss the bowtie, bowties are cool so stop staring."  
"I wasn't…I didn't mean…of course they…Doctor?!"  
"Yes?!"  
"What are you doing here?" Chloe laughed as she hugged him a bit too tight.  
"Well…" he said, wiggling out of her grip, "if you let me explain, all will be explained. Now come on, there is much to be done, we've got to get you two back home in time for Santy Claus, right?"  
The Doctor hopped around a bit before crawling back up the porch to the roof, with Chloe not too far behind.  
"Two?" She asked. "Is Casey here too?"  
"Well of course girl! Whatdja think? Only you will have all the fun? It's Christmas by George, a time for sharing!"  
"Yeah Chloe, where's your holiday spirit?" Casey's voice echoed from off the roof.  
"Casey!" Chloe shouted once she managed to get atop the roof. With all the snow, it was a bit difficult to do, you see. "It is so good to see you! I miss all my senior friends."  
Casey came out of the Tardis to hug Chloe (also a bit too tightly). She was in her Beavis and Butthead pajama pants.  
"It's good to see you too." Casey said. "Have you finished your college applications?"  
"Not yet, but I plan to have them done tonight…or maybe by tomorrow. You see I am stuck on the essay…"  
"Alright, alright! That is enough of that! We have to go!" The Doctor shouted and he pushed the two girls into the Tardis as they still twittered away about application this and essay that. And they continued too, without even the slightest interest in all of the levers and buttons the Doctor pushed, pulled, and twisted. They were colorful too. 

~*~

It seemed as though the traveling through space and time, though still wonderfully fascinating to Chloe and Casey, took a bit longer this time.  
"Doctor?" Chloe asked, (once Casey answered all of her questions about college, of course).  
"Yeah?"  
"Not to sound naggy or anything, but is there a particular reason the Tardis seems to be a bit slower this time?"  
"A very excellent question Chloe and I am glad you are finally asking more excellent questions." The Doctor said, pulling down a monitor while the girls just rolled their eyes.  
"You see this?" He continued, pointing at the screen. It was an image of what looked like a library filled to the brim with people but no books.  
"Yeah." Chloe responded.  
"Well, it's kind of a…it's sort of like…is actually a bit difficult to explain."  
"Try us." Casey beamed.  
"You girls like to read, yes?" The Doctor continued.  
"Of course." Chloe answered.  
"Well, there is a part of the universe, really its own universe, which coexists with yours…er ours really. But nevertheless, all that really needs to be understood is that it is broken."  
"Broken?" Chloe asked.  
"Yes broken."  
"How do you break a universe?" Casey asked.  
"Well… that is also difficult and boring to answer."  
"All excellent questions are." Casey remarked.  
"That is true, but this is so very easy to understand but very difficult to explain so that is why I am showing you but not telling you." He pointed to the screen again. "See them?"  
The girls nodded.  
"They have to stay in their own universe, as everyone does,"  
"Unless you have a Tardis." Casey interjected.  
"Yes, unless you have a Tardis. And, to put it quite briefly, they are not. There is a rift in the walls of their universe and they just keep bloody falling out. It's as though a pipe has sprung a leak and we have to patch it back up before anyone decides to make any future or past messier than it already is."  
"So we're plumbers" Casey joked.  
"But wait a minute Doctor, what do you mean any future or past messier? When they fall out, are they falling out in different time periods?"  
"Precisely and no, completely wrong. Look, I am a bit tongue tied at the moment, and a bit excited too, in a worried way, but if you just hold your excellent questions, they will be answered."  
And while the Doctor still had the two girls' attention, he hopped over to the controls and pulled every vibrant lever and pushed every button left and right of the console. He put on quite a show and finished it off with a triumphant CRASH! That knocked all three of them to the floor.  
"You should really work on your landings Doctor." Chloe commented.  
"Maybe I should drive next time." Casey said and the Doctor sprung up and caressed his console.  
"No! My Tardis."

~*~

The three explorers, after pulling themselves to their feet, leaped out of the Tardis to explore the universe that was so difficult to explain, even for a doctor such as the Doctor. Chloe and Casey roamed a hallway that was decorated with oil lamps and portraits of people who seemed to hold much importance to the inhabitants here, while the Doctor scanned what he could with the sonic screwdriver. Casey picked up one of the lamps but was pulled suddenly to the side by the arm by an overeager Chloe.  
"What?" Casey asked.  
"Look at this painting. Does it in any way remind you of someone? I mean there is no name plate and I cannot quite place it, can you?"  
Casey squinted and looked at the portrait of a young man who was dressed in a renaissance styled suit.  
"I don't know who he is but you are right, there is something about him that I recognize too."  
The Doctor's head popped up.  
"That's Horatio."  
The girls jumped back.  
"Jeez, warn a person!" Chloe gasped.  
"You should be used to it by now." The Doctor said as his continued to tinker with the screwdriver. Casey shrugged and nodded.  
"We should." she said.  
"Yeah well…"  
"Come on now don't dilly-dally!" The Doctor said as he started to walk down the hall.  
"We're not!" Casey shouted as they ran after him. But he stopped and turned around to face the two.  
"You know," he said, "'My old man said, 'Follow the van, don't dilly-dally on the way!' Off went the cart with the home packed in it, I walked behind with my old cock linnet. But I dillied and dallied, dallied and dillied, Lost the van and don't know where to roam. You can't trust the 'specials' like the old time 'coppers' when you can't find your way home.'"  
"Uh…what?" Casey asked.  
"Hey, isn't that Charles Dickens? Yeah! That's from…"  
"No time to waste come on now!" The Doctor shouted and he picked up speed and raced down the hall. "Glad to see you're finally catching on girls! Remember, everything is the answer here!" He shouted and he turned a corner. The two chased after him exclaiming even more questions than he could be bothered with.  
When Casey and Chloe caught up to the corner that he had turned around, they were met with the library they had seen on the monitor. There were hundreds of people who all stood and walked around, shaking hands and laughing and talking about whatever most interested them at the time. They were an odd assortment of people, some young some old, some with funny hats and funny voices, others far too serious and others far too silly, and some were not even people. But everyone seemed to get along well with everyone else and Chloe and Casey started their way through the mass of people to find the Doctor.  
Casey tapped Chloe on the shoulder.  
"You should hear some of these conversations. They are talking about some things I could not begin to understand but then they talk about people from Earth." Casey stage whispered.  
"Earth? Like whom?"  
"People like George Washington, Billy Collins, Adolf Hitler, Marie Antoinette, and Coco Chanel, someone with the name Smith was mentioned a bunch of times, Nelson Mandela I heard, and Ataturk. It is an odd bunch of people to talk about, just about as odd as the people here; but they talk about them as though they were some distant figures, not people who shaped our history. I want to know where we are."  
"Me too. Let's keep trying to find the Doctor and see if he actually has any answers."  
"Yeah, and quickly too. It is absolutely mad here."  
Just then, someone clinked something against their champagne glass and the entire mass of people turned to face the Doctor standing quite proud on a table.  
"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "and other assortment of creatures and people, please do lend me your ears for a moment." The people in the room chuckled. "I am the Doctor and I am here to save all of your lives. If you would not mind for a fraction of your time here, I need all the contemporary characters to shift to your left, those of the more modern era, to your right, and whatever you have left, please do wedge yourselves in the middle. I am going to make this as painless and as quick as I can, just as always, and stop your entire world from collapsing. No big deal really but if you could stop falling out of the rifts that would be a big help. And as for the comment made by my dear companion over there, let me just respond with a big old 'yes, yes it is. But 'oh you can't help that, we're all mad here.''"

~*~

The room mumbled to itself as the people organized themselves as the Doctor had asked. Chloe's jaw dropped.  
"I know where we are." She said and she pulled Casey along with her to talk to the Doctor. He was lowering himself from the table and straightening his tie when they came up to him.  
"Doctor!" Chloe said. "Pray do tell me what is the name of this building that we are in, so that I can confirm my hypothesis?"  
"Thinking again are we? Good! Great! I love it when you guys do that!" He grinned. "The name of this building is known here as simply 'The Castle'."  
"The Castle… uh…oh! Like El Castell? Kafka! Yes!" Chloe answered.  
"Exactly! Oh isn't it wonderful, but so difficult to explain!"  
"Wait, wait, what?" Casey asked.  
"Don't you see Casey?" Chloe said." We are in a world completely made up of the characters from Earth's literature! Remember Horatio's portrait? And all the quotes we've heard, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll? All these people? They are all characters from stories! We are in a world made up of the juxtaposition of every story ever written! In fact, right now we are in a building from Franz Kafka's 'the Castle'! It is amazing!"  
"That…that is absolutely fantastic! Oh my god! What are we still doing here? I want to meet Harry Potter and Dumbledore!"  
"Now, now, hold on there. There may not be a Harry Potter or Dumbledore or Shakespeare or Dickens or even Dr. Seuss if we don't focus here." The Doctor said. "Besides, if we are meeting any one here, it is going to be Bella and Edward."  
The girls shot him a look of discontentment.  
"To slap them across the face of course. Do you take me for a fool, girls?" 

~*~

The Doctor and his companions waltzed through the room, greeting and meeting the characters organized into rows. The girls could barely keep up with the questions the Doctor shot out, thousands in an instance. Tons of "how are you"s and "have you noticed anything odd lately"s and "has anyone gone missing that you have noticed"s.  
After not too long, the Doctor collected all the information he seemed to need and shot out of the Castle faster than Chloe or Casey could keep up. Outside the streets were paved with cobblestone and buildings from every era imaginable lined the sidewalk, inhabited with just as fascinating creatures.  
"Oh my, this is marvelous." The Doctor said but he did not take the time to look at or greet them just as the characters inside. He just whipped out the sonic screwdriver and stared scanning for what the girls could assume was the aforementioned rifted.  
"Doctor, how can you just ignore this wonderful world? Can't we please explore this area this time before we just run around in circles?" Chloe begged.  
"Sorry ladies" he said between spinning and analyzing, "another time, another time of course, right now we need to ensure that there can be one. Now" he clicked away the sonic "what we need to do is locate the Town Hall if you will of this place. It'd be a biggish, over-lavishly, glossy tall thing with doors and windows and things."  
"Wouldn't that be where we just left? The Castle?" Casey asked.  
"No, no that's a much too glossy and over-lavishly designed biggish tall thing with windows. Too elite. No, it'd be…somewhere" turning again the Doctor shot out a finger, pointing down a street, shouted "there!" and bolted.  
"Doctor!" Chloe and Casey shouted, following just behind him again.  
They ended up at the doorstep of a soaring building, white mostly, covered with the most beautiful of vines and surrounded with the richest soil. There were men and women dressed in frilly white garments, sipping tea and twittering and giggling at one another. At their feet, stood the Doctor and his companions grinning, trapped in awe.  
"Doctor?" Casey asked.  
"Doctor. It's Tara." Chloe said.  
"Yes it is. The mightiest plantation to ever fail." He said, still grinning. "And the epicenter of this world's mightiest problem." 

~*~

The three rushed inside, battling the hospitality of the maids carting lemonade and not nearly enough sonic screwdrivers. They scanned the corridors and rooms in complete disorder, cornering the rift they have been tracking, the one the lords and ladies just outside seemed oblivious to.  
"Well of course they seem oblivious to the rift, to any problem really that doesn't concern them with war or marriage." the Doctor explained, narrowing down where the rift could be in the massive house. "That lot is teeming with Carreen, Suellen, and Scarlet O'Haras like none of Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer's business…Now I think," the Doctor continued. "…yes…it's this way. Follow me!"  
Casey and Chloe followed the Doctor (yet again) up the staircase to the top floor of Tara, where they burst into the library of all the places. In the fireplace sat a dense, blackish-purple mass that seemed peaceful enough from far way, leaving all inanimate objects well enough alone. The three travelers took not but one-step more into the library before they felt the pull of the mass. It expanded, taking up more of the space where the mantle once was seen; not taking it in, but overlapping it. Chloe almost fell, if Casey had not grabbed onto the doorframe and grabbed her too, she would have fallen in. The Doctor however stood in the doorway, still grinning, still scanning.  
"Oh my, my, my, my, my, whatever do we have here now? Not just any black hole. Oh no. You're something special aren't you? …Alive even! Oh yes, very different indeed." He took a step into the room and started being pulled into the mass.  
"Doctor!" Casey shouted. "What are you doing?"  
"Unless I'm wrong," he said, "and I doubt it, it won't take me anywhere."  
The mass, however, continued to drag the Doctor towards it. Casey started to worry and helped Chloe to hold onto the doorframe while she then snatched the Doctor.  
"Hey!" He shouted.  
"You're crazy and you're welcome." Casey smirked.  
The Doctor nodded a 'thanks' and continued scanning the mass in Casey's grasp, mumbling 'I'm never wrong'. Chloe however got a little careless of her own ability to hold herself from the mass. Her fingers slipped and the mass's gravity got a hold of her, pulled her close into it.  
"Doctor!" She shouted, but the mass took her into its maw.  
"Chloe!" Casey shouted. "Doctor, what does that thing do? Where is she?"  
The Doctor looked into the mass and then back at Casey.  
"I have no idea." He said.

~*~

From behind the silk curtains, the morning light shone through, eliminating the dust of the living room. Though her eyes were weary and muted, Chloe could make out the floating dust particles dancing in front of her. She placed her hand on her forehead, moaning of a headache.  
"Oh…my head. Doctor. Doctor?" She mumbled and a blurred human mass came towards her, blocking her view of the dust.  
"Shhh miss, it is going to be ok." A kind woman's voice responded. "The doctor has gone now. He addressed your wounds but said you would be sore for a few days. Nothing to worry, I will get you some nice, hot tea dear, don't you move."  
The woman left Chloe in the living room. She sat up, carrying her head the whole way. She squinted and looked all around the room. The furniture was certainly exquisite and copious, vintage even, but in the nicest condition she had ever seen such pieces.  
Chloe continued to moan, not even remembering how she got into this gorgeous house, a house she could not resist being envious of. She straightened her posture and tried to clear her head, when she looked down. Her clothes were not the novelty nerd pajamas she had worn on her travels with the Doctor, oh no, she was clad in a long-sleeved, sky blue dress equipt with corset and polonaise. Frills decorated the ends of the sleeves, the hem of the skirt, and the collar of the garment.  
If not more confused than before, Chloe stood in worry.  
"What is going on?" She asked herself, and she twirled around in the room a bit, to try to see herself in every angle, to see if it was true everywhere.  
The woman from earlier returned to the living room with a tray, only to fret and worry Chloe back onto the couch on which she must have been laying before.  
"Now, now, you shouldn't tire yourself." She said, pouring the tea. "We are worried you may have knocked some of the life right out of you when we found you on the street. Do you remember that miss?"  
"Ma'am, I am sorry, I do not remember much that makes really any sense, but I do have some things to get off my chest. First, my name is Chloe, and I would not mind if you called me that one bit. Second, I do remember my life before this incident you mentioned, but really, what I want to know is who is we? Where am I?"  
Before the woman could respond, a tall elegant young man, carrying a cane in one hand, entered the room with such a presence, it caused the woman to stand.  
"Well, Chloe, as you call yourself, you are in my abode after my companion, housekeeper, and I found you with a head injury at our front doorstep." He came closer to the couch, causing Chloe to stand. "I consider myself master of this home and you are welcome here. Please, miss," he extended his hand for a greeting, "I am Sherlock Holmes welcome to Baker Street."

~*~

The Doctor hit the sonic screwdriver over and over in an attempt to understand the whole nature of what was going on.  
"Doctor! What happened?" Casey shouted over the pull of the mass, but the Doctor did not answer.  
Fed up, Casey pulled herself and the Doctor out of the library and slammed the doors behind them. As they gasped for air, Casey (lovingly) glared at the weird man in the bowtie.  
"What the hell was that?" She scolded. "Not only did Chloe go who knows where, but you don't even know any sort of possibility of what could have happened, do you?"  
No response.  
"Are you even listening?"  
"Yes, of course Casey, I am listening and you are right and I am worried." The Doctor started to pace." The sonic cannot tell me anymore of the mass than we can pretty much guess, and right now that is just about that it sucks things up. But not just things, living things, and does not stop at characters, no, real things too. It…ah! It just doesn’t make any sense! It's like the sonic cannot tell me anything because there--oh. Oh! Because there is nothing to know! The mass, the mass is alive Casey! And it cannot make up its mind, just like any living thing. Oh you are clever, me, yes you are."  
"So what does that mean for Chloe then?"  
"Not sure, but that doesn't matter. It's living right?"  
"Yes, you said that."  
"So that means, we can trick it."

The Doctor and Casey barged back into the library, the mass, dormant for while they were away, sprung back into is live pulling self. It started to pull the two into its maw.  
"Alright Casey, I've got it this time for sure."  
"I bloody well hope so!"  
"Just don't let go of my hand."  
Casey held on to the Doctor's hand as he pointed the sonic at the space in between them and the mass. As they were pulled closer and closer, they passed through the space, and for a moment, Casey could swear the Doctor looked just like Chloe, and the Doctor could swear the same for Casey.  
"Hang on now!" The Doctor warned, grinning even now, "this is going to be wild." 

~*~

"Baker Street?" Chloe exclaimed, grasping the hand of the elegant man before her. "I do not believe it. Is this by any chance 221B? Oh well it has to be, you are Sherlock bloody Holmes now aren't you? Oh my goodness. And then you must be Ms. Hudson! A housekeeper indeed, ha-ha! And where then is John…Wow this is phenomenal. I am sorry, I just never rehearsed for such a moment in my life. Please, please excuse me."  
With a skeptical look in his eye, Sherlock did pardon her.  
"Not a bother." He said. "But please, would you sit; I just have a few questions for you." She nodded and they sat opposite each other. "That'll be all Ms. Hudson." She left the room.  
"I hope you do not mind the dress," Sherlock said, "it is something I found in this house. You see, my companion, John since you mentioned him, and I have just settled in and we are finding some of the previous occupant's belongings."  
"Oh I do not mind it at all, I am rather flattered that I got some more tailor made clothes. Do thank Ms. Hudson for me if you could, for dressing me."  
"Yes…well Ms. Hudson-- Yes, I will, not a problem. Now," Sherlock situated himself in his armchair. "I do not want to seem forward, but I must say I am shocked at the amount of information you seem to have regarding me and my companions. Where did you learn all of this?"  
"Oh, can see how that looks a little …odd to say the least, but let me assure you that I am no one of any threat, never would I consider even speaking to Moriarty of your childhood or Mycroft unless you were there to--"  
"Moriarty?" Sherlock stood. "And Mycroft too?"  
"I didn't mean anything by that. Really, it's just that you are so…so well known is all. Moriarty' s name is tossed around a lot. And your brother he's…"  
"Do you know anyone named Irene perchance then? Or perhaps you just so happen to be pub chums with Anderson? You seem to know a bit more than you can pretend not to, all these characters, these references, all to me, my life, my companions. I must say you are treading on very shaky ground Miss Chloe. Tread more cautiously."  
"Mr. Holmes, I meant nothing by that, I--I just am a huge fan of your work."  
"My work now! I must say Miss Chloe, you are a persistent one."  
"No, no, just of what I have heard from around town, word travels fast of your successes at Scotland Yard. I swear, I am simply an enthusiast, Mr. Holmes."  
Sherlock did not respond. He walked around the room for a moment, circling his armchair. When he turned back around, he met Chloe with the most earnest of eyes.  
"Not a bother Miss Chloe, my apologies for jumping down your throat. You should stay here until Dr. Watson can deem you worthy of proper health. We must make sure you are healed. Please, make yourself at home and ask Ms. Hudson should you need anything. Once that is cleared up, we must send you back home, I am sure your family and friends are worried."  
Sherlock smiled and started to walk out of the room when Chloe stood and said after him.  
"Thank you Mr. Holmes for your hospitality!"  
"Not a bother Miss Chloe, pleasure to have met you."  
Sherlock walked out. 

Chloe slumped back down into the couch, her head in her hands.  
"Great. You just managed to meet your idol and you convinced him that you are either a stalker or a mindless minion of his archenemies. Way to go Chloe."

Around the corner of the doorway, just outside the living room, Sherlock stood. He waited for a moment before John Watson walked through the front door. He stopped him with his hand and silenced him with his piercing eyes.  
"John," he whispered, "go to the cabinet and get the elixir bottle numbered 'four', make sure Ms. Hudson still has some brewed hot tea around. Tell her to bring it to my study in about five minutes; I have some of my own things to collect. You meet me there after as well. Keep the bottle from Ms. Hudson's sight and do not go into the living room."  
John looked at Sherlock for a moment.  
"Alright, Sherlock. But what is all this for?"  
Sherlock turned and walked down the hall to his study, but not before he turned to answer his friend.  
"Really John, show some hospitality, we must entertain our guest."

~*~

With a bit of shock to her legs, Casey managed to land on her feet on the cobblestone road, followed by the sudden rustling of the bushes to her left as the Doctor made his entrance.  
"You wear me out sometimes Doctor." She said and she joined him in the foliage to help him up. "Now where are we?"  
"Well, from the looks of it," he looked around the area, "no idea. But! That doesn't matter, all that matters is we find Chloe and from then we can figure things out."  
"This isn't like the Weeping Angels, is it? Sending us back far enough to live to death?"  
"No, no, we are much too far back for that. Plus we were in a completely different universe. No, no, much more intelligent than that. But, I do have an idea, let's try and find…"  
The Doctor trailed off as a man in an officer's uniform accompanied by two other officials, approached the two.  
"'Cuse me you two," the officer gruffly voice sounded, "mind telling me just where you lot keep coming from? Am I goin' need my back up or should we 'ust let you keep loiterin' round like it's a tea shop?"  
"Ah yes, us lot," the Doctor said, "there have been more of us around here then? Right, right of course there has been. Mind telling me who they were?"  
"Don't know that I should." The officer grumbled. "There's a girl who got hurt right 'ere earlier and you and those other four are looking good for causin' it." The other two officers circled around back the two travelers." Maybe you should call a lawyer and get your friends, we are going to have a few questions for you down at the Yard."  
"Ha-ah! Yes!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Ye old Scotland Yard as it were! Brilliant."  
"Doctor," Casey whispered, "don't act too excited, what if that was Chloe."  
"Of course, of course officer" the Doctor said, dropping the smile, "we will come with your straight away, but first, if I may inquire if you have any knowledge about where those other four may be? We seem to have lost track of the-the um rest of our lot."  
The officer grumbled under his thick mustache.  
"You can't go there now, might be conspiring, but I'll give you the address so's you can message them. They say…" He flipped through a small book he had in his coat pocket. "221B Baker Street. Sound familiar?"  
Casey and the Doctor's face lit up.  
"What?" Casey asked.  
"Actually officer, scratch that. Mind if I phone a different friend? I think there is someone who can vouch for our friends' whereabouts better than anyone on Baker Street can."

~*~

Chloe was looking out the living room window that led to the outside streets. They were hardly busy, and signs of the newly opening street shops were being hung. Only housemaids seemed to occupy the streets, carrying baskets and buckets and carting around their bicycles.  
"Oh Doctor, where am I?" Chloe mumbled to herself.  
"Didn't Sherlock tell you then?" Someone from behind her asked.  
She turned around and saw John Watson carrying a tray of tea with Sherlock at his side.  
"It's Baker Street, really Sherlock, speaking of playing host." John said as he put the tray down.  
Sherlock strolled over to the armchair he had sat in before as John took a seat on the couch next to the tea tray.  
"I swore I told her just enough before she said it herself John." Sherlock said.  
"Oh well now, no big deal, she's probably overwhelmed with everything that is going on, please Miss…Chloe is it? Have some tea will you?"  
John poured a cup for her and she came over to take it. She thanked him and sat at the other end of the couch. John then poured two more cups of tea for Sherlock and himself. Sherlock shot him a look before taking his cup and immediately placing it to the side. John did not drink his tea, but Chloe found it delightful.  
"Now," Sherlock said, standing and walking over to the door, "do you mind if we discuss a few things Miss Chloe? It seems I just have just a few more questions." He closed and locked the door.  
Chloe stiffened.  
"I do not mind." She said and she put down her cup.  
"Good." Sherlock said and he strolled back over to his chair. "What is it that you know about Moriarty and Mycroft then, and how have you come to know it?"  
"Well…"  
"No one else in town, or even this street knows about my brother and my enemy, not by name, not by face, not by any sort of standards, so I find it odd that a stranger would. Care to explain?"  
Chloe sat up straighter, putting her cup to the side.  
"I do not think you would believe me if I tried to explain Mr. Holmes. I am sorry."  
"Please do try."  
"Well, I think I have told you all that I know thus far really, not more to it than 'a fan of yours'. These are people well associated with you, it only makes sense I know who they are."  
"See," Sherlock snapped, "I did not think there would be any sort of way to explain yourself out of this. Because my dear, these men you have mentioned, as well as Anderson, Adler, not only are they in no way associated with my life here on Baker Street, or have they been heard of by, as previously mentioned, anyone in this whole bloody town, let alone street, but they simply do not exist. So…" Sherlock came to Chloe and took her teacup in his hand. He scowled at her and looked down at the cup. "Why don't we just start with everything you know then? And I do mean, really know."  
"I don't know what you are talking about." Chloe bleated.  
"Now Sherlock what is this all about?" John asked.  
"Come now Miss Chloe, you have to be at least a little clever, what with naming people who have not existed here, you should know you are going to have to tell us, you are going to beg to tell us, because oh! What is that in your cup? Truth serum residue? Huh, how did that get in there?"  
"Sherlock!" John exclaimed.  
"Maybe not clever enough. No, not even close." Sherlock scowled.  
"What is going on here?" John shouted.  
"You tell us Chloe, if that is even your real name, a bit of a cliché line to impose, but a necessary one at that."  
Chloe started to sweat, the chemicals started to take hold, the room tilted.  
"I---I… Chloe is my real name!" She exclaimed.  
"Then answer me just one other question Chloe, I cannot even say that I mind so much that a pseudo intellectual like yourself managed to figure me out, to figure my family out, and my companions, but what really gets me is this mentioning of a Doctor. Who is he? Is he your accomplice? Are you both working for Moriarty?"  
"No! No!" She shouted.  
"Then who is he? Huh? Chloe! Who is the Doctor?"  
Just then, the door burst open. John stood, and he and Sherlock stared at the doorway. In it stood an odd-looking man with a bowtie and glowing wand of some sorts. He was smiling as if he could not bring himself to stop.  
"Hello Sherlock Holmes, nice for you to have taken care of my companion there." The man said. "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm the Doctor and I would like you a lot better if you could step away from my friend please."

~*~

No one moved.  
At last, the Doctor took the first step into the room. For a while, a battle of the psyche sparked between the Doctor's and Sherlock's eyes they slowly started to circle each other, imitating the stalking mannerisms of vultures in a game of chicken. Sherlock backed by John dared not slouch, his eyes rapidly sped over the Doctor, the Doctor who was backed by Casey, three police officers, and a slightly husky, mustached man.  
"Now Mr. Holmes, I realize this may come as a shock to you, but we are really not your enemies." The Doctor said, treading just as lightly with his words as with his steps.  
"Do not jump to the conclusion that I in anyway am in a state of worry. I leave that department to John." Sherlock smirked and John rolled his eyes. "I have no reason to fear because of you, Doctor."  
"Me?" The Doctor said, slightly taken back.  
They had slowly come to a halt though half rotation and faced each other with their parties to their lefts, on equal ground.  
"Of course." Sherlock continued. "You act as though you are in a state of power, authority, as though you hold some cards over me, but the truth of the fact is that you are here with a girl who is barely confident in saying her own name even when under a truth-telling influence. Not to mention what everyone all ready knows."  
"And that would be?"  
"You have been arrested. You are winging it, all of it, buying time, for what I cannot name but can be sure it will not pack the punch you plan. To be honest Doctor step back while you can. Take Chloe once I have finished my assessment, without question, but do not smile over advantages you do not have."  
The Doctor was again taken back. He patched his ego with the assurance that Sherlock had never seen such wonders as he had and moved away from the insults.  
"But you have been assessing her about me haven't you?" the Doctor continued. "Wouldn't you rather hear it straight from the horse's mouth?"  
"Of course not. Why would I trust the word of a man on himself when I have a woman here who is itching to pour all the truths of her very being out for me?" Sherlock smirked. "Please, officers, if you would?"  
Sherlock gestured for the officers to take the Doctor away but they did not move. Instead, the other man accompanying them stepped into the room, joining the battle.  
"Hello Sherlock Holmes," he said, laughing heartily, "you bitch."  
Sherlock's stance stuttered.  
"I beg your pardon?" He said, turning to the Doctor for answers, as people always seem to do.  
"Here comes another shock I am sure, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, but speaking of those cards you seemed to disregard, I warn you to brace yourself. You know very little outside your world, the platform written about you, the life you have lead, the characters that dance about in your life. You know very little about yourself Holmes, but this man, this man here knows more about you than you can conceive. This man's name is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and he is in a sense your father. He is a writer Sherlock and you are his character."  
John's jaw dropped. Everyone in the room dared not move. Sherlock's face remained as it was. The Doctor tried to continue.  
"You, John, Moriarty, Mycroft, and Ms. Hudson are characters in this man's, this wonderful man's stories, some of the bestselling novels in the world. You are living in a world that does not exist for you, and--"  
"Doctor," Sherlock raised his hand, "stop."  
Sherlock took a step forward. The rest of the room was dead space as Sherlock took the hand of Doyle and shook it profusely.  
"There is no need to tell me anymore of this." Sherlock's eyes pierced the Doctor. "I told you your cards were superfluous, but you played anyway. You played a game already finished Doctor. I know all of this, I know how we came from the ink on the pages of books, how we are living in a time-period our world strove to emulate, I know doctor! I know I am literature, so stop. You may give John an aneurism."  
Everyone looked at Watson. He seemed startled.  
"No really, I am fine, ladies and gents." John said.  
"You…you know?" Casey asked.  
"But if you know all of this, then why are you so hostile towards me?" Chloe joined in.  
"Because of the timing of it all. It was too perfect." Sherlock said. "Besides, you needed it."  
Chloe scowled and sighed.  
"Then you know about the empty library, the mass too?" Casey insisted.  
"I know more than that." Sherlock smirked. "But please, this manor is not nearly appropriate, everyone standing around. Mind if we sit please, I think we have been tense long enough."  
Everyone moved towards the center of the room while John collected the tea.  
"Yes, yes," John said, "everyone have a seat, so Sherlock can have his theatrics." 

~*~

Sherlock stood before his guests, Ms. Hudson sat in his chair and John stood behind her while the rest collected on or around the couch. The Doctor stood not too far from Sherlock.  
"As I have said," Sherlock began, "the timing of it all is far too perfect for all of you not to be suspicious. The only way for Chloe to have known all about me and my life, including my companions, would be if she had read our novels, or yours as it were Sir Doyle. However, I am fully aware of where we are now as opposed to where we once were. And the fact of the matter is, there is no way that anyone should know about me because, we are living in a time period where the books have not yet been published.  
"As I am sure you know Doctor, we lived in a world constructed of all the novels of the world I assume Chloe and your other companion have come from, we are all characters and all our stories still live with us there. However, that was the main issue. Moriarty and I as you well know, share a common trait that has controlled our lives: boredom. We are both obsessed with curing ourselves of this that we have created our own line of work, however his has caused more trouble than he is worth.  
"He is transfixed on the idea of the 'final problem' and had spent weeks trying to cure himself with countless experiments up in the library where the entity now resides. And that mass is his creation.  
"It started with another experiment, a creature that would right the wrongs Moriarty saw in our world, something powerful yet malleable enough that he would have control of all the characters and their stories. We had both figured out long ago of the parallel worlds, where our storybook characters were real just as we were. However, he did not account for the unreliability of life, for he had learned all about the art of science from Voldemort and Dr. Frankenstein, the three were regular bar chums and lousy tippers so I have heard.  
"The entity acquired its own sense of right and wrong, and started wreaking havoc. Luckily, I was able to catch wind of what it was doing and pinned it into the fireplace of the study. Essentially, the entity is righting wrongs, correcting the characters and their lives."  
"It is putting the characters into a world and time period where they seem to belong." the Doctor interjected.  
"Based on their stories, exactly." Sherlock concluded. "John, Ms. Hudson, and I were sucked in as well, however they did not notice a difference once we got here. It seems as though the entity wiped their memories of the travel, our old lives, why mine stayed intact is a mystery to me."  
"But how were you able to keep it in the fireplace?" Casey asked.  
"I would imagine it would have to hold itself there in some way because everything else gets sucked in and sorted." Chloe interjected.  
Sherlock looked surprised.  
"Not far off," he said, "I managed to use some of the equipment and notes left on the table to create another small version of the mass and attached it to the tail end of the original. However, mine is not alive more than just a makeshift black hole. Black magic is so vague. It cannot move when it is absorbing something and the mass has such a hold in our world that it would take what I assume years to be fully engulfed. So my mass is simply a pin, but once it is absorbed…"  
"We will be left with a black hole that may not let its victims live." The Doctor concluded.  
Sherlock nodded and the Doctor started to pace about the room.  
"Do you know what happened to Moriarty?" The Doctor asked.  
"Wouldn't he have been consumed by the mass too?" John offered.  
"More than likely." Sherlock said.  
"Then he would be here too." Casey said. "The officer did say there were four who dropped in at the same spot we did Doctor."  
"That's right" the officer said, "three men and a woman, then your friend here, then of course you two."  
"Did you see which way the other man went?" Chloe asked.  
"Didn't think to look."  
"Think to next time then." The Doctor said, still pacing.  
Sherlock sat.  
"Oh do please stop it Doctor, you are giving me a headache." He said, rubbing his temples.  
"Sherlock, there is a bit of a more pressing matter going on here." John insisted.  
"Well I am not much help if I am dizzy now am I John?" Sherlock snapped.  
"We’re not going to have to find Moriarty to solve this are we?" Casey asked.  
"Not to solve this? No." the Doctor started.  
"Of course not!" Sherlock insisted.  
"You might have forgotten you have two of the universe's strongest minds in the room, right here." The Doctor grinned pointing between himself and the detective.  
"Sherlock hasn't." John mumbled.  
Sherlock shot him a look but moved on quite quickly after, the Doctor had started to pace again.  
"Doctor! Please." Sherlock complained.  
"I need to, it helps me think." The Doctor said, drumming his fingers against each other.  
"What is with all this thinking Doctor!" Ms. Hudson shouted finally as she stood from the couch. "And you too Sherlock."  
The two turned and looked at her, in fact the whole room stopped.  
"Ms. Hudson?" Sherlock asked.  
"What is there to think about?" She continued. "We're stuck over here, that Moriarty fellow is god knows where, there's a big old mass floating around in the library of a world I only just realized was my home and a place I would very much like to go back to, and you two lot, well the world's smartest my derriere, you can't do anything from in here."  
Sherlock rolled his eyes."Ms. Hudson, there is no need to…"  
"No, Sherlock." The Doctor interrupted." There is a need for her to. Of course there is." He came up close to Ms. Hudson and held her by the shoulders. "She's right." He paused and examined her eyes. "We shan't stay here!" He exclaimed and hugged Ms. Hudson. "Bless you woman."  
"Oh…alright then. Glad I could help." She stuttered as the Doctor dashed out of the room followed by Casey.  
John stood and motioned for Sherlock to stand as well, which he did reluctantly, and they went after the Doctor. Chloe joined them as well, however after she left the room she returned to thank Ms. Hudson and to insist that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle join them, which did not take much. As he put it: "Miss out on seeing the greatest bastard I have ever created struggle with a mystery he was not written to solve? Not for anything in the world." 

~*~

"Doctor! Stop!" Sherlock shouted from far behind as Casey and the Doctor led the way to who knows where.  
"Detective! Keep up!" The Doctor shouted back. "You'll miss out on all the fun."  
The Doctor turned a corner, still running and leading his company along quite angrily, when he finally stopped, it was at the exact location of where they and dropped into that reality. They regrouped.  
"Now, gang." The Doctor started. "This, right here, where we are, is the exact location of where they and dropped into this reality. Where all of this seems to converge and time, time is of the essence. For now we must act. Now, we wait."  
"What?" Casey asked.  
"Wait?" Chloe asked.  
"Wait?!" Sherlock demanded.  
"Yes." The Doctor smirked as he walked over to the bushes to sit and wait. He started tinkering with his screwdriver, but did little else.  
"Doctor, you have got to be bloody kidding me!" Sherlock ranted.  
"Not in the slightest."  
"You mean to tell me that we left the comfort and security of my flat so that we did not have to wait around and think, so that we could come here, on the bloody curb, when it is getting dark out to bloody wait around and think?!"  
"Precisely." The Doctor smirked.  
"He's almost as big an ass as you are." Doyle remarked and he went to sit with the Doctor.  
"And what, pray tell, do you hope to accomplish here then?" Sherlock asked, only getting more disgruntled by the syllable.  
"For the black hole to return to the scene of the crime. All villains do, am I right?"  
Sherlock could not even utter a sentence.  
"Now who may have the aneurism?" John remarked.  
"This is absolutely ludicrous, beyond dull and dimwitted" Sherlock started as he paced, "you call yourself a Doctor, a Doctor of what I'll never want to know and yet you limit yourself to such a minor level of thinking. Have you ever considered this thing has a brain and it's not--oh. Oh!"  
The Doctor grinned.  
"What?" Chloe asked.  
"That's it. You brilliant idiot!" Sherlock shouted.  
"Oh you old soft-serve." The Doctor shrugged.  
"What is going on, Doctor?" Casey asked.  
"Please Sherlock," John started "you're doing that thing again and this time it's not only aggravating me, but your counterpart, a couple of nice young girls, and our own bloody writer, so if you could stand to try not to show off, for once in your--"  
Sherlock grabbed John by the shoulders.  
"Stop! Don't you see it John? It's alive. That ugly, disgusting creation is alive!"  
"Yes, you've said that plenty of times now what--"  
"Yes, we've said it, but we haven't thought of it!" Sherlock let go of John and started to pace about more, smiling. "Oh this is good. Doctor you are good."  
"Aw shucks, stop it I'm blushing." The Doctor stood. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and listened, grinning.  
"Will someone please get on with it?" Doyle asked.  
"Stop and think for a minute, all of you, just really try and use that organ tucked away inside your echoing skulls and think: why." Sherlock said.  
"Why?" Casey asked.  
"Why did the mass send you three here?" John offered.  
"Yes!" Sherlock said.  
"Sort of, that's part of it." The Doctor started and Sherlock rolled his eyes. "If I may, it sent Sherlock, John, Ms. Hudson, and Moriarty here because this was where they were written to be, this time is theirs, but not ours. We belong centuries after all of this is long and dead. But that hardly matters."  
"It doesn't matter." Sherlock said. "What matters is the mistake."  
"Mistake?" John asked.  
"The mistake in that we ended up here anyway, even though it is not where we chronologically belong." Chloe said.  
"Thinking again are we?" The Doctor said as he came over to Chloe and grabbed her head. "Yes, exactly, brilliant! I love it when you guys do that!" He kissed her forehead and then skipped around a bit. "Oh I love it when everyone thinks!"  
"So then, why are we here?" John asked. "The thing's not here, it's not 'round the corner, so why stay here and not at home?"  
"Oh come on John, and we were doing so well." Sherlock said. John just rolled his eyes.  
"Oh come now, Sherlock, let him have his questions. Don't you love answering them?" The Doctor said, winking. "Yes, well, that's it. As Sherlock said, the mistake. That's the thing! That's why we are here! We are the mistake!" The Doctor dashed around his company as he spoke, too giddy to keep still. "Life makes mistakes, it is messy and gross and wrong all the time. And all three of us over here, all three of us causing a ruckus over here, being all out of time and line: Casey, Chloe, and especially me!" He took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it up at the sky. He made it whir. "All this noise, from our presence, to Casey's shirt, to Chloe's college-essay-writing thoughts, to my screwdriver, it's got to drive a perfectionist mad! And we have caught the biggest one in existence listening in on us!"  
"But how do you know it is listening?" John asked, standing up, joining the rest to look up at the sky, waiting.  
"A giant mass created for the sole purpose of fixing an entire universe not checking in on its repairs? Please, it's more likely to send Captain America to the Renaissance." Sherlock snapped.  
"I'm sorry who?" John asked.  
"Ah-ha! I understood that reference!" The Doctor shouted.  
Chloe and Casey just looked at each other, trying not to burst into tears from laughter.  
"But why wouldn't it detect you guys anywhere else, or on your own for that matter?" John asked.  
"No one is disputing that it did in fact detect them, but there was little it could do when they were apart." Sherlock said.  
"Kind of like little lines, miniscule mistakes that can be ignored with no to little harm done." Chloe interjected. The Doctor grinned, and nodded for her to continue. "But, if we are here, at a weak point I presume, where a hole has already been made, much like a scar, then the mass can just peak back in, especially when we are making all this noise."  
"That's fantastic." Casey exclaimed.  
Sherlock looked over at Chloe.  
"Yes," he said, "brilliant." 

~*~

Just above from where the sonic screwdriver pointed at the sky, above the congregation of a renowned writer, Doctor, detective, soldier, and two nerds, a small, black tear became visible. It slowly grew, ripping away at the sky, inspecting its audience.  
"Everybody hold onto me!" The Doctor shouted, and everyone linked arms.  
Just as the tear became more and more visible, the Doctor activated something on the screwdriver that engulfed the six of them. What it did, they had no idea.  
There was no one else around, which was lucky for this hour of the day, and soon, the tear was large enough to swallow the whole company, and so it did.  
"Geronimo!" The Doctor exclaimed and the six were thrust into a vortex.  
They were pulled through realities and dimensions, universes and paradoxes. They were shoved around in the sphere the Doctor encased them in, as if lost by their host at times, but still managed to experience a rough ride.  
"Doctor?" Casey shouted. "How do you know the mass is going to send us back to the Library at Tara?"  
"Sorry, can't hear you over the noise of different universes!" The Doctor shouted back. "That's the problem with you humans; you never just enjoy yourselves during a good old fashioned world collapsing catastrophe!"  
Casey rolled her eyes and the sphere was pulled along, soon to encounter another tear, this one less ragged and more uniform, at a different end. They were pulled through and spat out by the original mass.  
Once out of the vortex and in the library, the Doctor released them from the sphere and they all spread out.  
The Doctor stood and brushed himself off.  
"Well," he said, "that could have been worse, couldn't it?"  
Everyone just shot a look at the Doctor and collected themselves as they stood, quite normally in the library. Casey, uneasy, looked around.  
"I don't understand," she said, "when we were here last, the mass kept trying to pull us in. It was so strong we had to hold onto the doorway. What's happened? What's shut it off?"  
"It's analyzing us." The Doctor said, reverting to his sonic screwdriver.  
"Analyzing?" John asked.  
"It still does not understand." Chloe interjected, still sitting on the floor.  
"Exactly, it cannot seem to fully grasp why we have caused so much trouble." The Doctor said. "I do not even think it understands itself, let alone what people really are." He clicked out the sonic. "And that's what makes it so dangerous, it is not held down by any morals, no grey areas, just black and white, right and wrong, and it does not understand loss, therefore it can never lose." 

~*~


End file.
